Zimbabwe: Livelihood Coping Strategies Analysis (2021-2025)

Understanding Coping Strategies

The Livelihood Coping Strategies Index (LCSI) measures the extent to which households resort to negative coping mechanisms when facing food shortages or financial stress. These strategies are classified into three severity levels:

Stress Strategies

Reversible strategies like borrowing money, spending savings, or selling non-productive assets.

Crisis Strategies

Strategies that directly reduce future productivity, such as selling productive assets or withdrawing children from school.

Emergency Strategies

Severe strategies that are difficult to reverse, such as selling land/house or begging.

Trends Over Time

The following chart illustrates the percentage of households adopting each category of coping strategy between 2021 and 2025.

Geographic Distribution of Emergency Strategies

This interactive map displays the prevalence of "Emergency Strategies" across Zimbabwe's provinces. Use the slider to view changes over time.